The culture of taiko in Japan has been developed into pretty mature period now. The Japanese taiko culture, actually origins from China's drum culture. Chinese people invented drum in Xia Dynasty, and drum was introduced to Japan through China during Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907 AD). But since Chinese mainland experienced the Cultural Revolution decades ago, the performance of drum had been devastated and destroyed. Japan, otherwise. Japan educates their citizens to protect their national culture all the time, so they do a really good job in preserving and developing taiko culture. Though the Japanese taiko origins from China, they are building up their own brand now. The most significant feature of Japanese taiko, I believe, embodies the spirit of Bushido. They do not look like playing drum but showing the spirit of samurai, as they wave the drum sticks like wielding samurai swords. Different from the Chinese drum performances, which play gently and give more emphasis on expression, eyes contact and upper body, Japanese taiko is played with the whole body, with great strength.

Japanpese taiko started to add some elements of Western music in 1960s, which made taiko performances become quite modern and magnificent. We used to enjoy the performance of taiko in a way of metaphor, elegance and tranquility in the early time. As the change of times, in order to meet the favor of the public, Japanese taiko starts to join some elements of Western music, and the style begins to change, no matter on the way of drumming or on the composition. We cannot say it is not good with those changes, for the value of popularity. But whether the popular thing can become classical requires the test of time. We cannot block the trend of popular music, but we should hold the value of classic music behind the popularity... (Abcrecord.com)